


we're meaner than our demons

by girlsarewolves



Category: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Final Girl Femslash, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kris/Nancy if you squint or just want to interpret things that way, Past Child Abuse, Pre-Femslash, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, horror femslash, which personally I do but it could easily be read as genfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 19:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5387522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two girls hold hands outside their preschool. There's blood on them, and the building's on fire. </p><p>(An AU where it's Kris and Nancy who come out of it alive.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	we're meaner than our demons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gloriousmonsters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloriousmonsters/gifts).



> Trigger warnings: nothing graphic but vague references to past child abuse, as well as two teenage girls dealing with trauma.

* * *

There's something satisfying about the glow and the heat and the crackling of the fire as it spreads through the old Badham building. Like that sweet, sick feeling that rushes through you when you finally punch back and the prick goes down.  
  
Kris isn't sure if that's really her thinking, or some part of Jesse that rubbed off and is haunting her. But she hopes Fred Krueger feels every second of his body burning up a second time. She hopes the flames take away the fucker's tears, his screams; leaves him feeling and aware and unable to respond.  
  
Unable to make it stop.  
  
"Now it really is like he was never here." Nancy stares with unfocused eyes at the fire. "Everything that was him was in that basement."  
  
"Good."  
  
Nancy's head looks over, her gaze focusing on Kris, and she looks so small, so tired. She isn't the same girl she was before the nightmares. She isn't the same girl that came back to Badham with Kris; she isn't the same girl who beat Fred Krueger with a baseball bat before Kris set him ablaze.  
  
But then neither is Kris. Or maybe they are. Maybe they're just not the girls they thought they were; tried to be. The ones who went to different schools until high school. The ones who always knew, deep down, something wasn't right, and mothers with forced smiles and haunted eyes tried to assure everything was fine.  
  
"We'll always know the truth," Kris says, reluctantly, angrily. But her bleary eyes stay on Nancy's, even though she's shaking as adrenaline starts to crash and shock and survival instinct fade - and oh, it all sets in, all the horrifying reality of it sets in.    
  
"He was never gone. And maybe he never will be."  
  
Knuckles brush against hers, and Kris glances down at Nancy's hand, tentatively touching hers. She smiles, not sure when Nancy moved her arm - blood still a damp stain through her sweater - and takes the offer. Laces her fingers through Nancy's.  
  
Quiet, shy Nancy Holbrook, who always liked to color and draw and only opened up when a friendly gardener convinced her to join in on their games - before he broke them all, one by one, like porcelain dolls. Weird Nancy who hovered on the edges around them, like she wanted to belong - like some part of her knew she did, and they let her, because some part of Kris and Jesse and Dean and Quentin knew she was one of them.  
  
Nancy, grown up and tired and so much stronger than she looks, smiles the smile Kris can only just remember from preschool, before everything was tainted and poisoned, and says, "But we beat him."  
  
Kris squeezes Nancy's hand tight as the sirens blare in the distance and the tears finally come. She's heartbroken and relieved and broken and exhausted and sick on vengeance that she'd never take back. And she's so many other things she can't even process yet - and she knows that Nancy has to be the same, her eyes watery but her cheeks dry, taking everything in as is Nancy's way - and Kris can only nod.  
  
They beat him.  
  
Kris and Nancy nod together, hands linked, affirming their victory even with its sacrifices and the lasting damage they'll always bear the scars of. And they watched Badham burn.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so glad this didn't take me almost a year to write - just a couple of months, yay! Title taken from 'Control' by Halsey (just modified slightly xD). Feedback greatly appreciated. :)


End file.
